Cutting emissions like a Samurai warrior

The travel mode you choose has a direct effect on climate change, which is why you should make the Smart Move today!

Buses are right after bicycles in terms of distance traveled per person on 1 tonne of CO₂!

But what does that mean exactly? It’s actually quite simple.

Place a bus and a car on the same stretch of road and have them travel as far as they can until they have each emitted 1 tonne of CO₂.? A bus would travel about 146,000 passenger-kilometres, while a car would only travel 26,000 passenger-kilometres.

Not only that, but a car would have to emit 5.6 tonnes of CO₂ to travel the same distance as the bus!

Here is an excellent infographic to help put things into perspective.

SOURCE

Did you know that if every bus in the UK took just one more car driver as a passenger, up to 1.2 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions could be saved per year? That amount of savings equals the average CO₂ emissions of 120,000 households per year. A great way to offset your yearly carbon footprint, don’t you think?

Ever wonder about your greenest travelling options? Look no further!

Source: American Union of Concerned Scientists, December 2008.

Note: Color-coded ranking are based on the distribution of CO₂ emissions across modes. The analysis assumes typical car and typical SUV fuel economies of 23 mpg and 18 mpg, respectively. Train emissions reflect an average of electric and diesel operations. The analysis assumes use of turboprops for 100- mile flights, regional jets for 500-mile flights, and narrow-body jets for 1,000-mile flights, based on information from the Federal Aviation Administration.

All passenger transport modes share one thing in common: they all need fuel to go places.

But how much fuel do they need?

And guess which one is the most energy-efficient?

Let’s take a look:

Source

According to UK data, coaches emit 0.023 kg of CO₂ per passenger-kilometre; compared to 0.028 kg for trains, 0.14 kg emitted by cars and a minimum of 0.351 kg for airplanes, depending on the distance travelled.

Overall energy efficiency by passenger mode of land transport on a regional scale in France, in goe/p.km

Source: ADEME study on the energy and environmental efficiency of transport modes, 2008

Overall energy efficiency by passenger mode of transport on an interregional scale in France, in goe/p.km

Source: ADEME study on the energy and environmental efficiency of transport modes, 2008

Also, if you replaced subsidised air travel in the U.S. with inter-city buses, it would cut costs by 68% and CO₂ emissions by 63,500 tonnes per year.

Hybrids are on the rise!

Similarly, hybrid technology helps reduce fuel consumption and reduces emissions by 20 to 30% according to French authorities.

Guadalajara is also expecting to reduce carbon emissions by 60%, by using hybrid buses compared to conventional diesel buses.

In London, every low carbon bus saves around 26 tonnes of CO₂ compared with its diesel equivalent.

The world’s longest bus has an eco-hybrid engine and seats 256 people! A green move for the environment!